How Sleep Deprivation Can Drastically Reduce Your Libido

Sleep deprivation affects all aspects of your health, including your sexual health. In fact, when you’re sleep deprived, you will most likely experience a drastic reduction in your sex drive. Truth be told, if you haven’t slept a single wink in several days, you’ll probably crave for sleep more than you’ll crave for sex or even food.

If sleep deprivation just a one-time thing, like when you’re preparing for an important deadline, then chances are high that you’ll be able to recover your sex drive after a night of restful sleep. But if you’re chronically sleep deprived, it will take more than just a good night’s sleep to restore your libido. Find out how sleep deprivation can rob you of your sex drive.

Sleep Deprivation and Your Testosterone Levels

Your plasma testosterone levels actually follow a circadian variation. This means that throughout the day, your plasma testosterone levels change. It peaks while you’re asleep at night, so your levels of plasma testosterone are high when you wake up in the morning.

Your plasma testosterone levels then gradually decline, reaching the lowest levels in the late afternoon. Increases in your testosterone levels are actually dependent on sleep. In fact, you need at least three hours of good quality sleep in order for your testosterone levels to increase.

Thus, any sleep disorders that doesn’t allow you to get sufficient sleep will lead to a reduction in your testosterone levels. For instance, if your sleep duration and quality are poor, your testosterone production will be negatively affected.

This is a common reason why men with sleep apnea often have low testosterone levels. Sleep apnea is a type of sleeping disorder wherein your breathing actually stops and starts. It prevents you from being able to sleep well because when your breathing stops, it makes you wake up.

Circadian rhythm disruptions can also adversely affect your testosterone production. For men who work in shifts, changes in your sleep schedule can disrupt your circadian rhythm. This can also cause your testosterone levels to drop.

In a 2015 study involving healthy young men, the results showed that a week of sleep restriction can cause a 10-15% reduction in testosterone levels. The men’s sleep duration was restricted from more than 8 hours to just below 5 hours. At the end of the week, the men’s vigor was also significantly lower compared to when they were sleeping for 8 hours.

Sleep Deprivation and Your Libido

Because lack of sleep induces a reduction in your testosterone levels, it eventually results in a decreased sex drive. Problems with erectile functioning have also been closely associated with chronic sleep deprivation. For instance, erectile dysfunction is highly prevalent in men with severe obstructive sleep apnea.

However, low testosterone levels are not the only factors that make you lose your libido when you’re sleep deprived. When you always lack sleep, your brain becomes exhausted. Hence, sleep deprivation makes you unable to concentrate and reduces your coordination skills.

This lack of focus and reduced coordination can also have indirect effects on your sex drive. Even if your partner is getting undressed in front of you and trying to seduce you, your brain won’t be able to properly process this visual sexual stimulus. You’ll see her getting undressed, but the meaning of her actions probably won’t register at all in your brain.

Sleep Deprivation and Erectile Dysfunction

The link between erectile dysfunction and sleep deprivation isn’t solely based on reduced testosterone levels. Although low testosterone levels induced by sleep deprivation is an important factor why men who are sleep deprived experience erectile dysfunction, there are also other factors involved.

For instance, chronic sleep deprivation increases your risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart diseases. These medical conditions are all risk factors of erectile dysfunction. This means that if you continue to sleep for less than 7 hours daily for several more years, you’ll eventually find yourself impotent and struggling with all these diseases.

High blood pressure can ruin your blood vessels, making them inflexible, hard, and unable to relax and contract efficiently. Heart diseases mean that your heart is no longer strong enough to pump sufficient amounts of blood into your penis. And if your penis can’t get filled with enough blood, you won’t be able to get an erection.

Diabetes ruins not just your blood vessels but also your nerves. This means that the blood vessels that transport blood to your sex organ are no longer functioning properly. Malfunctioning blood vessels result in impaired penile blood flow.

In addition, when your penile nerves are damaged due to diabetes, then it will affect your central nervous system’s ability to regulate your erections and sexual responses. Blood doesn’t just automatically flow to your penis when you’re aroused. A lot of neurotransmissions have to happen first between your brain, spinal cord, and penis before you can get an erection.

All these processes will be affected when you’re chronically sleep deprived. The years of lack of sleep will take a heavy toll on your health and cause all these damages to your cardiovascular system and your nerves.

As if that’s not enough, sleep deprivation is also closely tied to obesity, which is another risk factor for erectile dysfunction. The erectile function of men who are obese tends to be impaired, partly because obesity causes reduced testosterone levels.

In fact, obesity is one of the main reasons why young men who aren’t yet supposed to be dealing with age-related diseases like erectile dysfunction are already impotent. Sleep deprivation and insomnia are also common characteristics of men who already have erectile dysfunction even when they’re still below 35 years old.

Restoring Your Libido Naturally

Men normally struggle with libido problems from time to time. For men who are looking for ways to naturally restore their waning libido, all-natural male enhancement supplement offers an excellent solution. It is a sex enhancement supplement that can greatly improve your sexual desire.

That’s because it is made with natural herbal ingredients that are known to have testosterone-boosting and libido-enhancing properties. This is a great way for you to improve your erectile function and enhance your sexual stamina.

Explore all new comments

Our modern lives have been too stressful that I think majority of us have been sleep deprived at least at one point. Glad to know though that we can at least do something about the effects on our manhood when it’s impossible to get sufficient sleep. And if the ingredients are natural then why not?